Creating a boy/girl shared toddler bedroom

I've always wanted to "do" a nursery for my babies, but aside from Annaliese, none of them ever got their own room in the beginning.  When Ese was born, we were young and broke, so I had a "theme" but that was about it.  After all these years, I finally get to "do" a room.  But complicating matters, it has to be gender neutral, yet not babyish.  Boy/girl shared rooms just aren't common these days.  

Here's what we came up with:  

Paint color is Limelight by Kelly Moore. 

Paul was Not Pleased to discover the room would require 2 coats.  Although, I have to say, he didn't bat an eye at my color choice this time.  I guess he figured this was not the hill he wanted to battle on.  

He did a beautiful job painting the room. 

And I love how the color turned out. 

Ignore the rocking chair.  That ended up back in my room after we got all the babies' furniture in there.  

I chose a Panda theme.  You know how hard it is to come up with a gender neutral toddler room?  Everything is either PINK or sports/vehicles/dinos.

Katie girl checking out the view into the back yard (and the construction beyond the fence) by standing on the new storage chest I picked up on clearance at Target.com, using Lukie's birthday gift cards.  

We had to put some temporary light in there at first, hence the desk lamp on Katie's dresser.  

But eventually, I put a lime green Chinese lantern up.  And a couple of Chinese wall decals.  Katie's says "Love" and Luke's says "Serenity."  

Luke's dresser has pandas and "China stuff" on it:  dolls from Katie's province that we picked up while we were there, a panda ornament, and the porcelain pencil cup the official at Civil Affairs gave to Luke on Adoption Day.

The changing table wall, with the closet on the left side, and the bedroom door on the right side.  Note the panda nightlight (Amazon) and the Chinese wall hanging made by a friend.  

Walking into the bedroom, this wall is on the left.  It's Lukey's side.  Toys, dresser, crib.  This was taken before the wall decal went up over Luke's crib.

At the top of the photo, see the panda pull for the ceiling fan?  Obsessed?  Me?  

Here's the panda curtains with chevron tie backs and a lime and black circle print valance.  

Funny story:  When I ordered the fabrics for the room, this was what I got:  

The fabrics are sitting on the storage chest mentioned above when it was in my sewing room, before their room was painted.  We have Minkee chevrons, woven chevrons, circles, and 10 yards of... PIRATES???  

I know Pandas and Pirates both start with P, but this is so not going to work!  Fortunately, I called fabric.com and they exchanged them without any issues.

This is Katie's new big girl bed (which she hasn't slept in yet, since the safety thingie I bought to cover the outlet next to her bed needs a longer screw).  

I made the pillowcases (there are 2) out of flannel I had on hand.  The blanket is pandas with minkee on the backside, with one of my Happy Birthday labels on it.  1) I couldn't find my regular labels, and 2) the bed was one of Katie's birthday presents, so I figured it worked.  The crib sized sheets, I made from flannel I bought a BOLT of from Sewzanne's Fabrics several years ago.  Here are my crib sheet sewing instructions.  

And the book?  Katie got that with her kids meal at Chick Fil A today.  It just happens to match.  

There you have it!  A gender neutral, boy/girl shared room for my little panda babies.  

Forecasting the future is always a challenge, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking that later on down the road, this room may be shared by Hannah and Katie, and it would be easy to leave the lime walls and change everything else to pink or lavender.  

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Pinned it and Did it, Candy Pumpkins

Pinterest is evil.  But sometimes we just can't help ourselves, right?  I found a pumpkin craft that I just had to try with the kids.

It started out well.

But it didn't work out quite as we hoped.

Not as round as the example.

But still tasty.

Be ROUND, dangit!  

She finally beat it into submission.  

So we pinned it and did it, but I'd say this one was a flop.  Ah well, better luck next time, right?  

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A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

I'm so glad we got to go to the pumpkin patch before Hannah goes back to school next week.  I always feel bad when she misses out on our fun field trips.

We met up with a few friends to enjoy a local farm.

Katie learned the word PUMPKIN today.

There was actually some random kid in this shot, between Jack and Katie, and I edited him out.  Mad PicMonkey skillz, I tell you.  

I try not to think too much about the time a trip to the pumpkin patch ended with a friend's child breaking their leg on one of these hay pyramids...

You see my 3 kids on the left, exhibiting team work and being adventurous?

Yeah, I see 3 $50 ER co-pays.  

Not sure what's up with Eli in the background, but I thought Jack looked cute, so I snapped him.  

At lunch, Josiah sharing Cheeze It's party mix with Luke.

Katie had a hard time with the hay, since it's unstable to walk on.  And she hated the idea of jumping off even one bale.  So when we got to the real playground, she was suddenly more interested.

Unfortunately, it was a fast slide, and at the bottom, she looked up at me and instantly said, "NO MORE!"

It's really hard to get a decent shot of all the kids at the same time.

As in, I didn't manage it today, lol.

But Hannah's always good for a picture.  

Josiah took some pictures for me, which was nice, as I'm usually the one taking the pictures, so there aren't many pictures with me in them.  

Nothing slows this girl down!  

I decided the terrain would be too rough for my stroller (especially since Sam bent one of the front wheel pins, grr!), so we used one of the pumpkin patch wagons for Katie and Luke and the lunch and the diaper bag to ride around in.

Hannah with one of her friends.  

If we had caught Luke's face, this one would have been pretty good, all things considered.

Oh!  There's his face!  He was not sure what to think of the pumpkins.

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Pretty things

We are off to the pumpkin patch today, but I couldn't leave without sharing some pretties with you.

This is what Hannah's hair looks like when I comb it out in the morning.

And this is Hannah's hair with the cutest, tiniest (size mini) flexiclip ever!  Adorable, is it not?  

This is the brand new, just released today Harvest Freestyle flexi of the month!  It comes in several sizes to fit your hair perfectly.

I'd like to share a few more pretty things with you, just in case you're getting a jump on Christmas shopping, or you need a little pick me up for yourself.

These would be lovely teacher gifts.  I'm so glad I won't have the mad December scramble this year.  Every year, I find myself trying to come up with a new, creative idea for teachers.  This is perfect.  Check that off my list.  

Brianna has been knitting up a storm, and one of the things she makes is scarves.  I'm a little afraid to let her see this, or I might lose my favorite flexiclips to her scarf wearing, but it's a neat idea.  

Finally, hair bands.  I haven't tried these yet, but they're awfully pretty!  This would be a good pretty option for someone whose hair isn't long enough for a flexiclip.  

I am a Lilla Rose consultant, and I would be happy to answer any questions for you about the products or the company.  Happy shopping!  

http://www.lillarose.biz/Grtlyblesd

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